SONY MDR-7506 replaced/discontinued?

A

andrew00

Well-known member
Hey,

So I posted below about getting some small monitor speakers and have then realised I want to get some good headphones too so I can mix at volume whenever I want.

I did a search online and on here the consensus was that the SONY MDR-7506 were good headphones, I think I read 'industry standard' which is good enough for me.

But I've been trying to order some and they seem hard to get, there's SONY MDR-7505 speakers out and I'm now wondering if they've been replaced or what.

Can anyone tell me what the current situation with these headphones is please and therefore which ones are the current industry standard for decent sound mixing on a not too great budget heh.
 
I don't know of any headphones which are appropriate for mixing. Because there is no interaction in the binaural space, headphones tend to exagerate separation. Yes, the 7506s are considered an industry standard for location work and possibly even studio tracking (although I would not use headphones when determining microphone and channel strip selection and/or making equalization decisions prior to printing the track.
 
The general consensus will be that headphones are not good for mixing, for any reason, other than to double check on details you might otherwise miss with monitors. I don't see why the Sony cans would need replacement, they're good enough for what they do and everyone has the same thing, so there's a common point of reference for sound... just for recording and monitoring, not mixing.
 
Do not mix on headphones. Ever.

That said, they are very handy to have on hand for monitoring during recording, and for checking iso tracks for minute details. And no, the MDR-7506 headphones have not been discontinued as far as I know.

Sweetwater has them in stock.

Or check with DVeStore.
 
If you have big ears (like me) you might also consider the Sennheiser 280 for about $100. They sound as good or better than the Sony, and I for me, are more comfortable. I just never got along with the Sony stuff.

Grant
 
Let me say first that al the comments on not mixing with headphones are correct.

But we tend to get carried away and not everyone has a studio or a place they can actually play back at volume with out the neighbors pounding on the wall. "Mixing" on head phones won't kill you or cause global climate change it just won't work very well. You can probably, with enough practice, learn how to compensate. So if you must you must.

Mixing on speakers at below the level things should be played back at will also give you a skewed mix, though not as bad or the same. You can do editorial work on cans and in fact most dialog and ADR editors, that I have worked with, use headphones. Part of that may be that in many places they stick more than one dialog editor in the same room.

The big changes are stereo is MUCH wider on headphones, you need a lot more reverb to get the same "sound", so on cans you need to dial it way back or it will sound like something by the Jesus and Mary Chain when you hear it on speakers. All the really subtle stuff you hear will go away on speakers. And EQ is way off.

If you must the do two things that will help a lot. First listen to some music you like that was professionally done on the headphones periodically to remind you what something mixed on speakers sounds like on you headphones. And second be sure to play back on speakers someplace and see how your mix translates.

It's a PITA but it won't cause a natural disaster.
 
You can do editorial work on cans and in fact most dialog and ADR editors, that I have worked with, use headphones.
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Another part of that could be due to headphones being very nice when listening to vocals, as they ideally fit into the range that headphones best reproduce, vocal tracks also rarely have complex stereo mechanics behind them.

+1 on stereo separation, just try listening to some 60's & 70's music, like the Beatles and Queen on headphones!
 
It's been puzzling me that MDR-7506 is considered "industry standard" for location sound work.

A bit off topic -

Before I made my purchase, I went to B&H twice just to compare Sony MDR-7506, AT ATH-M50, and Sennheiser HD 25-1 II. Eventually, I also listened to other headphones. My conclusion was: both M50 and HD25 were significantly better sounding than 7506. For the money, M50 was the best deal. For the best sound with a pair of headphones made for "abuse" (so to speak), HD 25 was the only way to go. I really couldn't find anything about 7506 impressive - in other words, 7506 was no more than a pair of (relatively) mediocre headphones. I have two pairs of Sennheiser MX400 (earphones). Putting isolation aside, I felt even MX400 was much better sounding than 7506. I bought 2 pairs of MX400 for a total of just $10 (shipping was either free or a couple extra $) from Amazon.com. I remembered I had listened to HD 280, which to me was (of course) much better than 7506 but definitely not as impressive as HD 25.
 
Firstly, there is no rule that says you need to mix loudly, or so loud you will disturb the neighbors. Mixing too loud will skew your results more than mixing quietly. If it sounds good at low levels, I find that it transfers to louder playback just fine. Loud mixing usually results in the dialogue/vocal being mixed too low in relation to the music.

As far as some cans sounding "better" than the Sony 7506. The 7506 are pretty accurate. They don't have an EQ curve that makes everything sound better like cans designed for listening to music for pleasure. Yes the Sennheiser HD 25-1 II are better cans (I own them as well as the sonys) but the OP didn't want expensive cans, and the Sennheiser HD 25-1 II are 100 bucks more than the 7506 (going for 83 bucks). So for someone wanting an accurate set of cans that don't break the bank, indeed the Sony 7506 are a good choice, and indeed an industry standard for location sound for video as well as tracking cans for in the studio. So just remember we want accurate cans, not cans that make things sound better than they are.
 
Chadfish said:
Firstly, there is no rule that says you need to mix loudly, or so loud you will disturb the neighbors. Mixing too loud will skew your results more than mixing quietly. If it sounds good at low levels, I find that it transfers to louder playback just fine. Loud mixing usually results in the dialogue/vocal being mixed too low in relation to the music.
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Maybe not so much a "rule" as a standard. The standard for mixing in professional sound studios is 85dB.
 
If you plan on using headphones outdoors, the 7506 might not be the best choice. Not all that much isolation and I found wind slipping in making me think there was wind noise coming through the zeppelin. I checked the recording and determined it was wind in my headphones, not on the mic. Bought HD280 to have around for outdoors and higher iso needs. Can find them for $89 on ebay new in box
 
Out of curiosity, I did a little research on how 7506 became an "industry standard" for location sound work - (it does not seem to be that true) - here's a good article on this part of history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_MDR-V6

It should help answer OP's question whether 7506 gets superseded.


Here are some extra that I got:

1) 7506's reputation is built on a long history of being a good one with a modest price. It's a best AND "disposable" (so to speak) can that you may let just about anyone use, with enough confidence in its sound and build quality, but without worrying too much about it lost or broken.

2) Even for the price range, there are better, and even much better, alternatives. For personal use, where abuse is much rarer, 7506 is really not a best choice sound-wise for monitoring. To my ears, the slightly more expensive ATH-M50 ($119 as opposed to 7506's $83.95 at B&H) is an excellent, all-purpose choice, definitely better than 7506. I could clearly hear stuff that seemed to be muddy with 7506. And at a lower price, $69.95, MDR-V6, which is supposed to be superseded by 7506, is the top rated headphones at B&H. The 2nd and 3rd top rated at B&H are ATH-M50 and HD 25.

Well, all this said, which is the best choice of headphones is really up to personal preferences. The same headphones may sound very different to different ears.
 
Cheers! I ended up getting some 7506's, I appreciate there might be 'better' headphones out there but I took the plunge on these as 'the standard'. I was also looking at the Sennheisers but I read they can be uncomfortable for wearing after a while.
 
henryqiu said:
And at a lower price, $69.95, MDR-V6, which is supposed to be superseded by 7506, is the top rated headphones at B&H. The 2nd and 3rd top rated at B&H are ATH-M50 and HD 25.
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Now this is a crack up because the MDR-V6 are essentially the same headphones as the 7506's, just the "consumer" marketed version. That would tell me that the rating is because the V6's are cheaper, or people who spend more time reading specs than listening.
 
THere seem to be a few variations on the thread going on here.
So I will lay out where I am coming from.

I'm assuming the OP is talking about recording/ mixing sound for video, not music. Film / video is mixed at a reference level, that level can be pretty loud in the course of a film. If you mix at a level significantly different from what your playback ideally is your mix will be off.
So I agree that mixing too loud is as bad or worse as mixing too soft, the are both a problem. Mixing at a film level over speakers is not going to make you friends with your neighbors if you live in an apartment.

BTW C2V, 79-82 is a common setting for near field work (mix stage is 85) and I personally prefer to work at 79 (most people like things louder than I do). But even calibrated at 79 and action sequence is going to be loud.

As to "industry standard". The Sony's are pretty much the standard for production work in the US. Standard does not nec. mean best. Kind of like the Yamaha NS-10 speakers that were a standard for Video work for a long time. Harsh, nasty little speakers. BUT your mix was going to be reviewed on those speakers so you better have some and make sure that it played well over them. That is a standard, something most people have agreed on. The Sony's are a standard.

For FX work I have heard of a fair number of people using the Sennheiser's because of better isolation (and big ears).

OP, good choice.
 
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